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by Emmett O'Regan August 28, 2017 from UnveilingTheApocalypse Website Information sent by CFGO
displayed in the Historic Museum, Sanok, Poland
I think this offers definitive proof that the "great mountain, burning with fire" described in Rev 8:8 is located in the Canary Islands.
This sub-chapter
continues on from a portion of the book which notes that the
Apocalypse draws inspiration from the 'myth' of Atlantis to describe
the fate of the eschatological world power referred to as "Babylon".
We have already noted how Babylon's attribute of being set upon seven hills was originally intended to connect it with Imperial Rome in the preterist layer of interpretation, and that the use of this epithet identifies it as the current dominant world power.
However, the primary inspiration for the seven hills upon which the prostitute is seated is found in the seven burning mountains of the Book of Enoch, which are described as being situated in a location at the ends of the earth which has been reserved as a prison for the fallen angels:
The Book of Enoch is thought to have been written sometime between the 2nd-1st centuries BC, and while it was never included in the Christian canon, its content was well known to Jews living at the time of Christ.
As the noted Enochian specialist R.H. Charles points out:
The Book of Enoch is explicitly quoted in the Epistle of St. Jude, and clear allusions to Enochian material are made in 1Pet 3:19-20 and 2Pet 2:4-5.
Its influence is also apparent in many other places throughout the New Testament, and as Charles demonstrates, the author of the Apocalypse uses material found in the Book of Enoch to formulate many of its key phrases.
So the Book of Revelation shows a clear dependence on
this influential apocalyptic text, and as we shall discuss in more
detail in a later chapter, the seven stars that Christ holds in his
hand in Rev 1:16-20, which are described as "the keys to Death and
Hades", can only fully be understood in light of material which can
be traced back to St. Jude's use of the
Book of Enoch in his
epistle.
However, it was composed too late to have been included in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) version of the Old Testament where the Deuterocanonical works are found, and its inclusion in the Hebrew canon was suppressed by the Jewish Council of Jamnia (Yavneh) circa 90AD.
Tertullian attributed the rejection of the Book of Enoch by the Council of Jamnia to its content of several prophecies pointing to Christ.
By the 4th century AD, when the Christian canon was finally being codified, the Book of Enoch fell out of favor in the Early Church because of a perceived (but misplaced) association with the plethora of Gnostic texts that were by then in wide circulation, and it subsequently fell into almost complete obscurity.
Indeed, St. Jerome noted that the Epistle of St. Jude itself was even called into question due to its quotation of the Book of Enoch. Its claims to antediluvian antiquity, while initially accepted by figures such as St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, were later regarded as being too fantastical, and gave rise to some misgivings that this book was spurious in nature.
However, the genre of the Book of Enoch itself was overlooked (as it still is in some circles today), and many commentators failed to appreciate that instead of trying to mislead its audience into believing that it was actually the work of an antediluvian prophet, the author used this figure as a literary device in order to communicate several key prophecies which held eschatological import.
As the author himself explicitly states at the beginning of his work, the visions that he was presented with took the form of a parable which is addressed to a remote generation living during the tribulation of the end of days:
Writing in the 2nd-1st centuries BC, the author was shown a vision of himself assuming the role of the Prophet Enoch, which was used to explain the unfolding of future events through the medium of a prophetic parable; and like the sealed words of the Book of Daniel, the significance of this vision was only meant to be fully realized towards the end of the world.
The style in which the Book of Enoch presented itself led to these words becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, and as a result of a negative trend in the 4th-5th centuries AD, the Book of Enoch totally disappeared from view in the Western Church, until it was eventually rediscovered in Abyssinia by the explorer James Bruce, who arrived back in Europe with three copies of the Ethiopic version of the text in 1773.
So while this writing was excluded from the canon during the formative years of the Early Church, and does not have the inerrant status of Sacred Scripture, the Book of Enoch was certainly considered to be an authoritative text by several writers of the New Testament itself, and as such, some of its content must be regarded as being genuinely prophetic in nature.
Indeed, given the fact that the Book of Enoch provides us with the key to interpreting the various portions of Scripture which use its material as their primary source, it becomes apparent that this writing is one of the most important extrabiblical texts when it comes to understanding the eschatology of the New Testament.
As such, the portion of the Book of Enoch which mentions seven burning mountains in relation to the location of the place of the imprisonment of the fallen angels holds considerable value for unraveling the true meaning of the imagery of the harlot seated upon seven hills in the Apocalypse.
This section of the Book of Enoch is deeply influenced by the story of the binding of the Titans in Tartarus detailed in Greek mythology.
Indeed, Tartarus itself is explicitly referenced over the course of the next two chapters, where we are told that these fallen angels are under the subjugation of the Archangel Uriel:
The seven burning mountains that stand at the end of the earth, which are identified with the location of Tartarus, singles out the particular fate of the Titan Atlas.
Atlas was one of the chief leaders of the Titans during the war against the Olympians, and was given the special punishment of being condemned to stand at the ends of the earth in the far west of the known world, in order to hold up the sky for eternity at the gates of Tartarus.
He was identified with the Atlas Mountain range in northwest Africa, and gave his name to the Atlantic Ocean (which means "sea of Atlas") and Atlantis itself (which means "island of Atlas").
The Titan Atlas features in the eleventh labor of Hercules, when the fabled hero was tasked to steal the golden apples from Hera's orchard in the Garden of the Hesperides, which were said to grant immortality once eaten.
On his way to Garden of the Hesperides, Hercules was said to have encountered Atlas standing at the ends of the earth, and offered to hold up the sky to relieve him for a while, if he would fetch the apples for him in return.
There are some intriguing parallels here with the Tree of Life and the Garden of Eden, especially given the fact that the tree which bore the golden apples of immortality was guarded by the serpent-like dragon Ladon, which was the Greek equivalent of the seven-headed water dragon Lotan in Canaanite mythology.
The Book of Enoch bears a striking resemblance to this story, in its depiction of the path to the Garden of Eden being guarded by Leviathan and Behemoth:
According to Greek mythology, Atlas was the father of the Hesperides, the nymphs of the evening who tended an Eden-like garden in the far western corner of the world at the edge of the world ocean (Oceanus), beyond the Pillars of Heracles and at the end of the Atlas Mountain range.
The Pillars of Hercules were identified with the Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa, opposing mountainous peaks standing on either side of the closest point between Spain and Morocco, across the straits of Gibraltar, and was considered to be the place where Atlas stood in order to hold up the sky.
The Garden of the Hesperides was closely associated with the realm of Elysium, which according to the Greek poet Homer, was found at this same location, at the western edge of the earth.
By the time of the poet Hesiod, Elysium was connected with the semi-mythical Isles of the Blessed, otherwise known as the Fortunate Isles, or the White Isle, which were believed to be ruled over either by the king of the Titans, Cronos, or Rhadamanthys, the judge of the dead in the Underworld.
The Fortunate Isles were considered to be the abode of the heroic dead, who were granted access to the White Isle after being reincarnated on the fields of Elysium three times.
Elysium itself was thought to be a winterless paradise adjacent to the White Isle, on the border of Hades:
The Isles of the Blessed were most commonly associated with the Canary Islands during the classical period, since their description in Greek mythology points towards this exact location, and the minutiae of the details provided in various sources match the climate and topography of this archipelago.
The seafaring Greeks and Phoenicians were believed to have explored at least as far as the Canary Islands, and their knowledge of this location is thought to have been integrated into their respective mythologies.
The Canaries are the first island chain beyond the Pillars of Hercules that any Greek explorers would have stumbled across, especially if they had kept close to the coast of North Africa for safety and to replenish much-needed provisions.
Indeed, the Canary Islands was mostly likely be the furthest point along the North African coast that ancient seafarers would have ventured, since the punishing conditions of the Sahara Desert lay immediately to the south.
As such, the White Isle ruled over by Cronos at the far edge of the western world is usually identified with Mount Teide in Tenerife, a high volcano which is often capped with snow.
(On an interesting side note, Mount Teide is the main symbol of the island of Tenerife itself, and somewhat ominously, its coat of arms of depicts the Archangel Michael appearing over the volcano, which is shown spewing forth flames.)
The ancient Greek historian Strabo fleshes out some detail on the account of the Isles of the Blessed given in Homer's Odyssey, and not only equated it with the Garden of the Hesperides, but also explicitly identified it as being in the exact location of the Canary Islands:
It is evident that the story of the Fortunate Isles was conflated with the 'myth' of Atlantis, and that the lines between this location are blurred with that of Tartarus, the place the Titans were kept in bondage.
Both Tartarus and the Isles of the Blessed were considered to be under the dominion of the Titan Cronos, who lends his name to one of the seven classical planets, since his direct equivalent in the Roman pantheon was the god Saturn.
The Book of Enoch explicitly states the seven burning mountains also represent seven stars:
According to Plato, as well as being the appellation of a Titan, Atlas was also the name of the first of the ten kings of Atlantis, who were five sets of twins born to the god Poseidon - which is highly reminiscent of the ten kings represented by the ten horns of the Beast of Revelation.
In a further connection to the imagery of the Beast of the Apocalypse, the island of Atlantis itself was also said to have been divided into seven interconnecting circles:
So in a direct parallel to the whore of Babylon riding the Beast with seven heads and ten horns, Atlantis was a land divided into seven parts, ruled by ten kings.
The tale of Atlantis has also been associated with the now lost harbor city of Tartessos, which was also said to be located somewhere beyond the Pillars of Hercules, most likely on the Iberian Peninsula itself, near Cadiz.
Even though the original site of the city of Tartessos remains unknown, there is an abundance of archaeological evidence which confirms the existence of a wealthy Tartessian culture in southern Spain.
Some historians believe that Tartessos was destroyed by a tsunami, and there have been convincing attempts to identify it with the biblical city of Tarshish, which had sea trade links with ancient Phoenicia and Israel.
Although it is extremely unlikely that the fate of Tartessos provided the inspiration for the 'myth' of Atlantis, since this city only disappeared from historical record around the 5th century BC - which is much too late to have influenced the development of this story, which was by then already in wide circulation.
But it is worth noting that the name Tartessos is etymologically similar to Tartarus itself, which may suggest that this city may have derived its name from its proximity to the traditional location of the Underworld.
In Semitic thought, Tartarus was equated with the Abyss which held the primeval waters beneath the earth, which burst forth from the deep during the time of Noah's Flood:
The Book of Enoch conflates the story of the Titans with that of the fallen Watchers - the rebellious angels who fathered the race of giants known as the Nephilim, which is mentioned immediately before the Flood narrative in Gen 6:
According to the Book of Enoch, the fallen Watchers were confined at the end of the earth amidst seven burning mountains, and the place of their imprisonment was associated with the location from which the fountains of the deep poured forth during the time of the Flood:
Just as the Garden of the Hesperides was home to the golden apples of immortality, the Book of Enoch states that the seven burning mountains lie at the entrance to the location of the Tree of Life, which is protected by the angel with the flaming sword:
So the setting of the seven burning mountains in the Book of Enoch appears to act as some sort of nexus between heaven and hell, which is the location of both the entrance to the Abyss and the way to the Tree of Life itself.
This is somewhat similar to the ancient Greek understanding of the afterlife, where the gateway to the fields of Elysium and Tartarus are both found at the entrance to the Underworld, which lies in the west at the ends of the earth, beyond the Pillars of Hercules.
This may reflect the fact that as well as being home to the original paradise, the Garden of Eden was also the location of Satan's primordial fall from grace as well as the Fall of Man:
In his commentary on Plato's Timaeus, the neo-Platonic philosopher Proclus Lycaeus mentions the existence of "seven islands sacred to Persephone" located in the "outer sea" (the Atlantic Ocean), whose inhabitants had passed down their ancestors' knowledge of Atlantis:
Persephone was the queen of the Underworld, and the fact that these seven islands in the Atlantic were said to be dedicated to her further suggests that this location is in some way associated with the entrance to Hades.
According to Greek lore, the goddess Persephone was the subject of the affections of Hades, who wanted to take her for his spouse and resolved to drag her off into the Underworld by bursting through the earth, creating a rift between worlds.
The location of the abduction of Persephone was thus considered to be an entrance to the Underworld itself.
Adherents of the Eleusinian mystery cults who sought secret knowledge about how to gain passage to the Isles of the Blessed followed initiation rites dedicated to Persephone.
As we can see from its borrowing of Hellenistic terminology, the visions described Book of Enoch closely follows the Greek concept of Tartarus and the Fortunate Isles in describing the vicinity of the seven burning mountains as the abode of both of the Tree of Life and the Abyss.
In chapter 23 of the Book of Enoch, we discover that the seven burning mountains which stand at the location where the fallen Watchers are bound in the Abyss are also situated in the exact same place as Elysium and the Isles of the Blessed - at the western edge of the known world:
Immediately after seeing the location where the fallen angels were imprisoned in the west at the end of the earth, the author of the Book of Enoch once again describes the seven burning mountains in chapter 24, only this time he goes on to state that it is also where the Tree of Life is located.
Further details are provided about the location of Tartarus in Enoc 67, where we are told that as well as being situated in the far west beyond a "great valley" (which should probably be equated with the Pillars of Hercules), it also lies near mountains containing precious metals which are usually associated with the land of Tarshish, which is usually identified with Tartessos:
The Ancient Greek historian Ephorus described the land of Tartessos as being rich in some of these same commodities, stating that there was,
And it can be attested from the archaeological evidence that the Tartessian culture in the Southern Iberian Peninsula was indeed extremely rich in these very mineral deposits, as well as proof of their trade links with ancient Phoenicia.
So judging from the internal evidence, we can establish that the seven burning mountains seen in the Book of Enoch not only lay at a point in the far west of the known world, but also they were situated near the,
...that was associated with the land of Tartessos/Tarshish in the Iberian Peninsula.
In chapter 76 of the Book of Enoch, we are provided with the further detail that the seven burning mountains are also seven islands located in the "great sea" (which is one and the same as Oceanus/the Atlantic Ocean):
Given that the position of these islands is described as being in the Atlantic, at the far west of the known world near the site of Tarshish/Tartessos, combined with the fact that they are also clearly identified with the location of Tartarus and the Isles of the Blessed, we can firmly establish that these seven burning mountains are one and the same as the seven volcanic islands of the Canary archipelago:
One of which, the Apocalypse tells us will be thrown into the sea in order to bring about the destruction of "Babylon".
The waste wilderness of Dûidâin, which Enoc 60:8 states lies to the east of the garden should therefore be equated with the Sahara Desert, which lies to the immediate east of the Canary Islands.
It is of immense significance then that the Book of Enoch identifies these seven volcanic islands with the site of the Tree of Life, and also as the location of the waters of the Abyss, which gushed forth to inundate the earth during the Flood.
The Book of Enoch also has a clear influence on the Second Epistle of St. Peter, where we find that the only place in the New Testament which mentions the word Tartarus is similarly associated with Noah's Flood:
As we have already seen, chapters 66-67 of the Book of Enoch describe how the angels of punishment who reside in the Abyss unleashed,
However, the above passage also contains an eschatological dimension related to the "day of judgment", and closely follows the formula outlined in the Gospel of Luke:
So the Second Petrine Epistle provides us with a bridging connection between this passage in Luke's Gospel and the Book of Enoch, which states that the location of the imprisonment of the fallen Watchers is the source of the world's chastisement by flood:
Only in the Gospel of Luke, we are told that these events will once again be played out at the end of time.
While the promise of the Noahide Covenant remains in force, and God will never again fully destroy the world by flood (Gen 9:11), there will be another major inundation which takes place towards the end of the world which will destroy the prevailing world power before the rise to power of the Antichrist.
After this, the earth will finally be consumed in flames, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone raining down from heaven.
So according to the formula set down in the Gospel of Luke, the final chastisement of humanity is comprised of two parts, and while the events of the Great Chastisement are set in motion by a massive flood, the sins of the world will only finally be cleansed through a baptism of fire.
We should note here that the Book of Enoch does not necessarily identify the Canary Islands as the actual site of the original Garden of Eden however, since rather curiously, it describes the location of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as lying in another garden in the east:
So while the Book of Enoch states that the entrance to the Underworld and the way to the Tree of Life lies in the far west, the location of the original Garden of Eden and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is placed at some point in the east.
It would thus appear that by placing the way to the Tree of Life among the seven volcanic islands of the Canary archipelago, the Book of Enoch highlights that this location is of a prophetic, eschatological concern, rather than dealing with actual historical realities.
By guiding us towards a certain prophetic truth which was tapped into by Greek myths about the Isles of the Blessed and the entrance to the Underworld, the Book of Enoch emphasizes the importance of this location in relation to the significance of the way to the Tree of Life and the angel with the flaming sword who stands guard to protect it.
It was obviously almost impossible for the Apocalypse to explicitly identify America as the eschatological world empire known as Babylon, since it was written well over a thousand years before its 'discovery' by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
But by closely identifying Babylon with the 'myth' of Atlantis, the Book of Revelation provides us with the exact location of this future world empire.
This nation, which is set to be destroyed in the sea just like the fabled Atlantis, is a continent which lies beyond the pillars of Hercules at,
As we can see from the original account of the 'myth' of Atlantis given in Plato's Timaeus, this is an almost exact description of the location and size of 'America' itself:
By inviting us to compare the seven heads of the Beast on which the harlot is seated to the seven burning mountains seen in the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse not only provides us with the exact location where judgment would be meted out on "Babylon", but also the precise form this judgment will take.
Now that we have narrowed down the location of the "great
mountain, burning with fire" described in Rev 8:8 to one of the
seven volcanic islands in the Canary Islands, we can safely identify
the eschatological "Babylon" as the world superpower which lies
within the boundaries of the Atlantic basin that would be the most
affected by a lateral volcanic collapse in this area of the world,
which once again, can only be
America...
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